Lessons from Uber: Redefining the Module of Doing Business in Africa

Everyone wants to be a millionaire. Everyone wants to be rich. Most forget that to create true wealth, one must work hard at earning it and not just making it. Africa is a continent full of copy cats. Open one shop here and a month down the road, 10 others have opened similar shops, targeting the same one client. This is a character that I have never understood, despite researching on it, other saying it as it is, we are a lazy lot in thinking and being creative on the business front.

Many say if you can survive doing business in Kenya, then you can thrive anywhere in the world and I agree. Kenya is a concrete jungle of copy cats, corrupt government officials, sly tenderpreneurs, an ignorant buyer and an illogical transport system. Kenya is the devil’s pit when it comes to doing business of any sort not to mention a regime keen on propaganda and ignoring facts, maybe they using the facts as toilet tissue? That’s the only explanation to how things have gotten in the business realm.

How do we change the core negative characteristics that define doing business in Africa and specifically in Kenya? Most of the things we read are pure PR that would make a Mama Mboga choke on her saliva. The entrepreneurship eco-system in Kenya is choking on so many negative elements that no one seems to care about addressing it yet we always talking about them.

Uber is an interesting firm. Not because they have disrupted the logistics industry but because it officers key lessons on how we can redefine the module of doing business in Africa and Kenya specifically.

Story 1

1 client told me how they are excited to have Uber in Kenya because since Uber launched and reduced their fares to KES 35 per KM, he has been able to save upto 90% of transport costs that he was paying to a contracted cab service provide. He says that that his firm used to incur upto KES 500,000 per month to this contracted cab service provider but since Uber came in, the firms total bill for the same has reduced to KES 87,000 per month. Just how crazy is this?

Now he is excited that he can reinvest back into the business and be able to grow and also save a bit and secure a better tomorrow when business is low. This is a powerful story. It shows that; –

1. It’s possible to reduce the cost of doing business and still make good profits and create an environment that supports and nurtures the saving and investment culture.
2. It’s better to embrace technology as a catalyst to empower our business and not a deterrent that will cost jobs.
3. If we can all think outside the box, refuse to copy others, research to identify the needs of the customers that visit a particular shop, we can have more Ubers in a modern world.
4. Regulation needs to be handled with car as it might stifle growth of new opportunities that might challenge the status quo of doing business.
5. From Uber, one can reduce cost of goods and services and still remain in the profit margin, creating that needed environment that will nurture other businesses to grow and enable better circulation of capital.
6. There are various sectors ripe for disruption and this could be what Africa and Kenya in particular has been waiting for. For example; –

• Retail sector
• Food processing in Agriculture